


Thank You For Listening

by theotpeffect



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Angst, Comatose Finn, Fluff, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-01
Updated: 2016-07-01
Packaged: 2018-07-19 08:06:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7352830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theotpeffect/pseuds/theotpeffect
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Poe loves speaking to Finn, the only problem is he can't quite speak back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thank You For Listening

**Author's Note:**

> based off of a tumblr prompt for [themdecimal](http://themdecimal.tumblr.com/) (who is an awesome artist btw... just sayin' that link holds wonders)!

Poe Dameron was not shy in admitting he hated Kylo Ren. He hated that he had gone dark side. He hated that he worried General Leia, after all this time. He hated all he stood for. But when Rey had contacted him on their flight back to base and told him Kylo Ren himself had ripped a ravine through Finn’s back, he was not shy in admitting he _despised_ him.

                Even at light speed, returning home was the longest trip Poe had ever flown. He usually found some peace in the white streaks, the stars, that passed by his cockpit, but worry gnawed at his heart and he stared intently at the control panel in front of him the entire flight.

                He had never been more eager to leave his X-wing. He almost felt bad about how much he wanted to get out of her- then he saw Poe. He had barely left the Millenium Falcon, limp in Chewbacca’s arms, before Poe was by his side. He followed him to the medcenter, leaning over him as best he could without getting in the medics’ way. He had been called out to a few times- people from his own squad, others who recognized him but whom he himself couldn’t place. He couldn’t have payed attention to them even if he wanted to. Everything was Finn. _Finn._

                   As he sat there by Finn’s side, after the excitement of solving Luke’s map, after the rush that came with sending Rey and Chewie after him, he was quiet, wondering why he couldn’t seem to find any words to say. He spoke often, and he was _good_ with his words. But there, with Finn, he wasn’t entirely sure what he should say. Or even what he wanted to say.

                A medical droid whirred behind him, its instruments clinking as it cleaned up. It didn’t say a word while it worked, or when it exited.

                Poe was left again, with the only sounds being Finn’s deep, steady breathing and the soft beeps that monitored his heart. Everyone else had gone to sleep for the night, making the quiet even deeper, more unsettling. Poe felt as if he and Finn were alone on some uninhabited planet deep in the galaxy.

                Poe squirmed in his seat and crossed his arms tightly over his chest.

                “I’m cold, aren’t you cold? No blanket and--” he reached out and pinched the end of Finn’s sleeve between his fingers, “--thin clothes, might as well be on Hoth.”

                He sat back, arms crossed again. “Actually, I’ve never been, so I wouldn’t know. Luke Skywalker’s been there though, we could always ask him once Rey brings him back. I wonder if it’s any better during the summer. Was he even there in the summer?” Poe hummed, staring at one corner of Finn’s bed. After a few moments he snapped his fingers together. “He probably _wasn’t_ there during the summer. I heard this one story where he killed a _Wampa_ and used its dead body as a sleeping bag so he wouldn’t freeze to death. I don’t think it would have gotten that cold there during the summer months, you know?”

                Poe shivered and pulled his jacket closer to him. “I can’t imagine _any_ place being that cold. I would never visit a place like that, I hate being cold.”

                Poe zipped up his jacket and settled into his seat. He even pulled his legs up, toying with the fabric of his pants.

                “Do you hate the cold too?” He stayed silent for a minute, staring at Finn. Half of him hoped he would speak, agree and say that the cold was the absolute worst. He would even take an argument that the heat was the true hell of the galaxy, _anything_ would have been better than his silence.

                Poe sighed and stood. He gently patted Finn’s shoulder, eyes fixed on some point across the room. “I’ll see you later, buddy.”

 

\---

 

                Poe had hardly gotten a wink of sleep through the night. Finn silently resting on his slab of a medcenter bed was the only thing he could think about. Sleep was elusive through the night as he tossed and turned and wondered if he would ever really speak with Finn again.

                When Poe had finally drifted, he dreamed of flying as Finn spoke through his radio. He laughed and he joked. An unidentified X-wing circled Poe’s own and Finn’s voice crackled through the radio once again, taunting, teasing. Poe laughed too.

                When the dream woefully ended and Poe’s eyes opened he’d gotten dressed and went to the medcenter.

                He sat carefully on the seat, perched on the edge, and barely breathing as he leaned over Finn and wondered for a moment if Finn had really spoken to him during the night. Somehow.

                But Finn did not move and Poe breathed in deeply as he properly leaned back in his chair.

                His exhalation took form in a string of words, hurrying to leave his mouth. “You know, I dreamed about you last night. We were actually _talking_ , it was great, you should have been there.” He laughed, but stopped soon, his smile slowly melting into a frown. “It was only over the radio, though. Your voice- it didn’t sound like you, not really.”

                Poe leaned forward again. He reached out, his hand hovering in the air for a moment. What he was reaching for, he wasn’t sure. But he settled for placing his hand over Finn’s.

                He was still warm. When Poe shifted his fingers so they could reach under Finn’s wrist he could feel a heartbeat, strong and steady.

                “I think we were flying together, though,” Poe said. His frown slowly lifted and he didn’t feel quite as heavy. “It kind of reminded me of when we first met. That was a hell of a ride. I’ve definitely bragged about it to my entire crew. They’re sick of hearing me talk about my daring escape with the brave ex-stormtrooper now, I’m sure.”

                Poe played with Finn’s fingers. He wiggled them and lifted them up and down as he spoke. He was smiling now.

                “We really kicked ass you know. Actually, _you_ did. We wouldn’t have been able to get the hell outta there if you hadn’t been such a great shot. I hear that’s uncommon amongst the stormtroopers, you should be proud. I know I am.”

                Poe continued playing with Finn’s fingers, but his focus was solely placed on his face.

                “It would be great if we could fly together again. Steal another TIE Fighter. Shoot some bad guys. It’ll be great.” Poe smiled. “Yeah, we’re going to have tons of fun, buddy.”

 

\---

 

                When Poe next visited BB-8 trailed behind him, so close Poe practically tripped over it as he walked.

                “Guess who else is here today,” Poe said. His smile was small and soft. When he placed himself in his usual chair, BB-8 rolled over to the other side of the bed. It looked down at Finn’s sleeping figure and beeped a few times before turning its attention to Finn again. It beeped again and Poe sighed.

                “Yeah, he won’t reply.”

                BB-8 lowered its head and made its way back to Poe’s side. It bumped into his thigh, its focus turned to Finn once more. It sat in silence for a while before piping up again.

                Poe burst into laughter.

                “No way,” Poe said. “Did Rey really kick your ass the first time you met?”

                BB-8 whirred happily and rolled a bit as it continued with its story. Its beeps increased in frequency as it recounted the tale of how it happened upon Finn.

                “You know, I gave the jacket to him,” Poe said with a smile Finn’s way, “It’s all his now, so _please_ don’t tell Rey to attack him again because of it.”

                BB-8 beeped and bobbed its head slowly, like a task of the gravest importance had been bestowed on it.

                Poe smiled and patted its head gently.

                BB-8 rolled forward and opened its tool-bay disk, revealing a clamp that it used to tug at Finn’s clothing, straightening them and dusting them off gently. Poe smiled, watching as BB-8 smoothed all of the visible wrinkles in Finn’s clothes. Poe was sure if it could, it would be humming under its breath as it attended to its patient. 

                Once it was done fussing, it returned to Poe’s side, its tool-bay disk once again closed. It turned to Poe after a few quiet minutes and beeped lowly.

                “Alright, you go on ahead, I’m going to stay here for a while longer,” Poe said. He reclined further into his chair. BB-8 beeped once more and left Poe and Finn alone once more.

                “That was some first meeting you guys had,” Poe said. “You’ve gotta tell me the rest of your adventure sometime, you know. I wanna know the rest. How you met Han Solo, how you ended up on Takodana. All of it.”

                He stood and stretched, wondering what had happened to Finn during those times. He could always ask BB-8, but as much as he loved the droid he wanted to hear it from Finn himself.

                “Let’s save it for another time,” Poe said, dropping his arms and relaxing. “I’m gonna hold you to it, too.”

                Poe smiled and patted Finn’s arm. He wondered for a brief moment if he could kiss his forehead. He didn’t.

                “See ya later.”

 

\---

 

                Poe groaned as he threw himself into his chair. He let his head flop back over the chair’s back and groaned some more.

                “Finn, these kids are gonna kill me,” Poe said after a moment. He brought his head back up and sighed when he felt it throb. “I’m too old.”

                Poe closed his eyes and massaged his temples. “I’m trying to train a new batch of pilots. And it’s not like I haven’t done this before but this bunch... they’re so _loud_. How do I even control them?”

                Poe inched his chair forward and placed his hand over Finn’s before resting his head on the bed, right next to Finn’s waist. “What did you guys do to encourage order at your base? Was it something horrible? Like, did they probe you? Oh my god, am I going to have to probe my students?”

                After a few moments of silence Poe nodded as best he could in his position. “Yep, I’m going to have to probe them.”

                Poe sighed and stroked Finn’s hand. “Ah, it’s not like they’re bad kids, though. Hell, a lot of them are certainly more talented than I am.” Poe draped one of his arms over Finn’s lap, careful not to put any weight over his torso. “You should drop by for a lesson, they might like you. You’re like a giant puppy, they’d love it. I know I do.”

                Poe closed his eyes. He could hear Finn’s breath- a slow inhale, exhale. It was peaceful, and for a moment Poe could pretend, if he ignored the beeping of the medical equipment, that they were back in his bunk. Finn could be dozing on his bed and Poe could be complaining about his day, completely satisfied.

                “When are you waking up, buddy?” Poe asked. He didn’t open his eyes as he spoke. “There’s a lot you have to see around here. And Rey keeps contacting us, asking about your health and status. I’m pretty sure she misses you.” Poe finally opened his eyes. He took a deep breath and puffed it out slowly. “ _I_ mi-”

                “Sir,” a medical droid spoke, its tinny, female voice startling Poe enough to make him jump. “Please don’t disturb the patient.”

                “Right.” Poe sat up quickly but was slow to pull his hands back, as if he couldn’t quite bring himself to let go. When he finally did, his hands flopped into his lap. “Sorry, Finn.”

                Poe remained as the medical droid cleaned and ran some checks on Finn. He kept his hands pressed against his thighs and he didn’t breathe a word. After nearly half an hour of just watching Finn he got up and left, with only a barely-there brush of his fingers against Finn’s arm as his goodbye.

 

\---

 

                The next day, Poe entered the medcenter as quietly as he could. At Finn’s bedside, he dragged his chair far enough away that he nearly felt isolated. He sat down slowly, as if a sudden movement might disturb the medcenter machines enough to stop working, stop pumping someone’s blood, stop someone’s heart.

                The seat Poe had begun to think of as his own had never been comfortable, but it felt harder then. Colder. The beeps and the whirs and the lack of any smell at all made it even more uncomfortable for Poe to sit there and stare at Finn’s unconscious body. It was all unnatural, all of it. Poe hated medcenters.

                He stood and began pacing. His eyes were glued firmly to the cold tile in front of him.

                “I miss you,” he said, finally.

                When he was met with no reply, he turned his back to Finn and stood still.

                “It frustrates me, knowing I can’t do anything,” Poe said. He looked down at his hands. They were rough, scarred, calloused. They wouldn’t have felt pleasant against someone’s skin. “Nothing but disturb your sleep anyways.”

                Poe dropped his hands. “Is it stupid that I come here everyday to talk to you? Can you even hear me?”

                Finn didn’t reply.

                Poe growled and hit his thigh with one of his fists. “I don’t think I’m gonna come back for a while. I’m drivin’ myself crazy here, waiting for you.”

                Poe marched himself to the medcenter’s doors, but paused, after the hiss of the doors subsided.

                “Bye, Finn.”

 

\---

 

                Poe had not visited Finn in days. He would watch as BB-8 made its way to the medcenter after one of their lessons, longing to go with it, but unsure if he _could._ Seeing Finn again had quickly become one of the hardest things he had to do.

                Even Leia had visited Finn and would often stop Poe and inquire after his health, because everyone knew how often Poe had once visited him.

                The days dragged on, and everyone seemed to be more concerned about Finn than they usually were.

                “How’s Finn?” was all Poe seemed to hear.

                “Hey, Poe!” one of his students had called to him one day. “How’s Finn doing?”

                Poe sighed, “I don’t know. I’ll get back to you on that.”

                Poe left them without another word and retreated to his bunk where he hid until BB-8 came trundling in. On its entrance it simply rolled to Poe’s side and stared at him, not saying a word.

                Poe rolled his eyes and made to turn away from BB-8 when he felt a sharp shock to his leg. He yelped and jumped out of bed, backing away from it quickly.

                “What the hell?” he shouted. BB-8 let another zap of electricity and rolled forward, beeping quickly.

                Poe sat down on the edge of his bed once the threat of being electrocuted was safely hidden once more.

                “I know I should see him,” Poe said. “But, it’s been hitting me really hard lately that he’s not fine and I- I don’t know if I can handle seeing him like that again, BB-8.”

                BB-8 nudged him gently and cooed. Poe patted it and nodded.

                “Okay, I’ll go.”

                The walk to the medcenter seemed too short for Poe. He was there before he could really come up with anything to say.

                He stood outside of the doors for a while, before he gained enough courage to step through them.

                He was greeted again with the familiar form of Finn’s unconscious body on the medcenter bed. He tried to pretend, like he normally did, that Finn was sleeping, but Poe found he couldn’t. At least, not as easily as he had been able to before.

                “Hey, buddy,” he whispered as he sat on a chair slowly, quietly. “Uh, sorry I haven’t dropped by for a while.”

                Poe squirmed in his seat at the silence that answered him.

                “I’m not sure what else to say,” Poe said and chuckled quietly. He sat in silence, staring at the floor below his feet.

                It felt like an eternity before he was able to raise his eyes to Finn’s face. He could see Finn’s eyes moving under his eyelids and wondered what he was dreaming of. If he was thinking of Poe, or Rey, or BB-8 or _something_ pleasing to him. But Finn’s brows scrunched together. Poe moved forward then, clasping Finn’s hand before he could process any more than Finn’s distress and his want to comfort him.

                “Sorry,” Poe whispered and began to stroke Finn’s hand gently. His face relaxed once more and Poe felt himself breath out in relief. “It just hit me all at once that you’re like _this_ and I’m completely helpless, completely useless to you.”

                Finn’s eyes were still waving frantically behind his eyelids and Poe sighed and leaned forward.

                “Look, I like you. A lot. Ever since I saw you in my jacket to be honest. And it just- just _hurts_ to see you hurt.”

                Finn frowned and kept scrunching his eyebrows together. Poe smoothed a hand over Finn’s cheek and shook his head as his distress grew, a knot in his stomach growing. “You don’t deserve this.”

                Finn’s frown deepened and Poe could no longer keep his worry at bay. He pressed a button to summon the meddroid and rested his elbows on Finn’s bed as he held his hand in an iron grip.

                When the droid shuffled in Poe stood, but didn’t remove his hands from Finn.

                “Hey, there’s something wrong, I think,” Poe said. He smoothed a knuckle over Finn’s cheek. “Hey, buddy, what’s wrong?”

                The droid busied itself with the equipment strewn around the room. A painstaking minute was spent in which the droid tried to figure out what was wrong, until it returned to Poe’s side.

                “There’s nothing wrong with the patient, sir, he must be waking up,” it said.

                Poe’s mouth fell open and he faced Finn again. He sat down heavily as if all the gravity of the planet had pulled him down.

                “He’s waking up,” he repeated slowly. Finn’s eyes flickered under his eyelids once more. Poe broke out into the largest grin he’d had in weeks. “He’s waking _up.”_

Finn’s eyes opened then. His eyelashes fluttered and he squinted at the ceiling above him for a few moments. His eyes turned to Poe’s. Poe, who was still touching him and caressing his face like he was the most important thing in the galaxy.

                Finn smiled at him and it took everything Poe had not to fling himself over him.

 

\---

 

                Finn faded in and out of consciousness for a few days. He slurred a few words during his wakeful hours and watched whoever was in his room with him when he was awake. It was mostly Poe who was there. 

                Soon, he was awake for an entire day. Poe stayed by his side the entire time, babbling about everything they had spoken about when he was asleep.

                “The last day we really spoke before you woke up was when I was telling you to come and visit one of my lessons,” Poe said. His hands were resting on his lap. “The offer still stands, by the way. They’d all love you.”

                “Wait, no,” Finn said and shook his head. “I remember hearing you talk before I woke up but it definitely wasn’t about _that_.”

                Poe sat back and huffed out a breath. “Figures, you’d heard me _then.”_

Poe allowed Finn to struggle with his memories for a few more minutes. He chewed on his lip and scrunched his eyebrows together. Before his entire face lit up.

                “You said something about liking me a lot,” Finn said. He smirked at Poe and winked. “And you like how I look in your jacket.”

                “I take back any statements I’ve made about you being a giant puppy, you’re clearly a ranchor.”

                Finn’s smile softened. “I also remember a few other sweet statements a certain someone told me.”

                Poe rolled his eyes. “I was in distress, you don’t have to torture me like this.”

                “No, I wasn’t doing _that_ ,” Finn said. He laughed and scratched at his arm absently. “I actually want to tell you something now, because of it. Um- sorry if this doesn’t make sense or anything, I’m still a bit disconnected from- normal social stuff and the coma really didn’t help.”

                Poe smiled at him and raised his hand, only to force it back down to its place on his lap. “You can tell me anything, buddy.”

                Finn sighed and looked down at his crossed legs. “I like you too. But- but it’s weird. As intimate as relationships got in the First Order was getting each other off, nothing else was allowed, so we just never spoke about it. And this- this is weird, definitely cause I want that with you, but- but more? You know, like, innocent stuff, just, holding your hand, or talking to you all day, and telling each other secrets in the middle of the night.”

                Poe stared at Finn, his mouth open and his hand inching forward to rest over Finn’s. When it did, everything fell into place and Poe smiled.

                “All this because you heard me being a huge sap that one time?”

                Finn shook his head. “I mean, I’ve liked you like that for a long time... it’s just- it made me want to say something about it, after you told me all those things. Especially when you said you liked me.”

                Poe found himself leaning forward to kiss Finn’s cheek gently. “I do. Like you, that is.”

                When he leaned back he started chuckling to himself and held a hand over his face.

                “What?” Finn asked.

                “Nothing,” Poe peeked over his hand to Finn, his grin so large it nearly hurt his cheeks. “I’m just really glad you finally heard me.”


End file.
